By
Ray Blehar
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| Governor Corbett |
According to Governor Tom Corbett, former OAG prosecutor Frank Fina should have nothing to fear about Kathleen Kane's investigation of the Sandusky investigation. As Corbett pounded the podium at a July 2012 press conference, he exclaimed that he was tired of hearing about what took so long for the successful prosecution and a "monster was taken off the streets." They had successfully convicted Sandusky on 45 of 48 counts.
As Governor Corbett should know, sometimes the result is undermined by how you got to it. In math class, you had to show your work on how you got the answer and it appears that Corbett doesn't want ANYONE to "show the work" in the Sandusky case.
As it turns out -- there was quite a lot wrong with, not just the work, but even with the result.
40 vs. 400
Why was it that the OAG decided on a 40 counts in November 2011, rather than 400 counts?Back in January 2011, former State Police Corporal Joseph Leiter told the mother of Victim 6 that there was enough evidence for 400 counts and that they had less evidence in murder cases. Unless Leiter was lying, there had to be more than two victims up until that point.
According to information on the public record, there were allegedly just two victims in November 2010 -- Aaron Fisher and the unknown Victim 2. The Victim 2 case was a single incident involving five counts. Therefore, either Aaron Fisher's abuse could substantiate 395 counts on its own or there were more victims that we hadn't heard about.
Smart money is on the latter.
NBC's Rock Center featured an interview with another boy from Lock Haven who stated he was not abused, but was in contact with Sandusky from 1997-2003. Using 1997 as a starting point, the math shows that Sandusky had been interacting with children in the Lock Haven area for about 11 years before Fisher reported him for abuse. According to Fisher's trial testimony, troopers Cavanaugh and Akers told him in December 2008 that "he was not alone" and that there were other victims. Similarly, trooper Scott Rossman also told Fisher about other victims (see Commonwealth v. Sandusky, 6-12-2012, page 77) in June of 2009.
Sandusky became a volunteer assistant football coach at Central Mountain High School in the Fall of 2003, thus he had access to children not only through his work at Second Mile, but through coaching. Based on a study by "Abel, et al, of 377 non-incarcerated, non-incest-related pedophiles...(the) average, homosexual pedophile had abused 150.2 children and committed 281.7 acts." From this information, the odds favor Sandusky abusing more than just one child (Fisher) at CMHS and far more children than the 17 that were listed by the OAG as accusers in the Sandusky case.
As I noted in this blogpost, the fact that Sandusky dropped his appeal to DPW in February 2009 is yet another indicator that other victims had come forward. It would seem rather easy for a pillar of the community like Sandusky to win an appeal against a single, unconvincing victim. Sandusky's dropping his appeal would have come about because the police had found other victims. If what I have written so far is true, then the OAG could have charged Sandusky almost immediately, publicized the arrest, and in so doing, put out a call for more victims to come forward.
If we play out this scenario, and Corbett and the OAG bring 400 counts, it would have been a rather insurmountable case for Sandusky to fight and probably would have resulted in a plea deal. Why wouldn't Corbett and the OAG wanted to go this route?
Perhaps because they wanted a "circus" trial -- more on that later.
